Cellular telephones are inherently mobile devices. Accordingly, a cellular telephone user-or a user""s caller may not know the current location of the cellular telephone. For this reason the automatic reporting of a user""s cellular telephone location is often important. For example, the user simply may not know his or her current location. Alternatively, an emergency situation may arise in which the user cannot provide verbal information due to injury or other impairment. Moreover, the ability to automatically report location information over a cellular phone may be particularly useful if the user is a child.
A cellular telephone equipped with a position finding device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,209, for example. Such phones make it possible for people to gain access to a variety of services such as emergency roadside assistance (ERA), personal emergency response (PER) service, vehicle tracking assistance (VTA), traveler information assistance (TIA), traffic incident management (TIM), and fleet management services, as well as a number of other services. The position information is derived from global position system (GPS) satellites, commercial RF broadcasts such as AM and FM radio and television broadcasts or combinations thereof.
In some circumstances, automatically transmitting only location information is not sufficient to adequately address the emergency situation. It would therefore be desirable to transmit therewith additional information pertaining to the cellular phone user such as the phone number of a party to be contacted in an emergency. For example, if the user were a child it would be desirable to transmit to a xe2x80x9c911xe2x80x9d facility the child""s home phone number or another number at which a parent can be reached if an emergency were to arise.
In accordance with the present invention, a transmitter is provided for communicating over a cellular system. The transmitter includes a data storage device electronically storing predefined information to be communicated to a receiving station over the cellular system. The redefined information may include one or more telephone numbers to be contacted in an emergency, medical information, or any other type of information. A position finding receiver such as a global position system, for example, is provided for determining the current geographic location of the transmitter. The transmitter also includes a signal processing element for providing a signal that includes the predefined information and the current location. A transmission element receives the signal from the signal processing element and, in response thereto, transmits a cellular signal that includes both the predefined information and the current location. A manually operable actuator is included to establish communication with a receiving party over the cellular system and to initiate transmission of the cellular signal thereto.
In one embodiment of the invention, the transmitter is configured as a compact device that is only operable to transmit a message to a single predefined telephone number such as a xe2x80x9c911xe2x80x9d facility, for example. Because of its compact size and limited dialing ability, this embodiment may be of particular use to parents who want their child to be able to contact an appropriate party should an emergency arise.